Ridiculous Bloopers Involving Animals

There's an old adage, attributed to comedian W.C. Fields, that advises performers to never work with children or animals. Why? Because little kids and beasts lack the self-control of adults, and if they don't feel like working, they just won't. That makes filming a movie or TV show with either party extra difficult—particularly the animals, because they're a bit harder to reason with. Here are some times where dogs, cats, horses, and other animals amusingly wreaked havoc while the cameras rolled.

Jim Carrey loves to goof around on the set, riffing on lines, making silly sounds, and teasing co-stars. It's his bread and butter, and all part of the Jim Carrey package. A penguin isn't going to understand Carrey's near-pathological need to improvise, however, and so when Carrey messes around for a bit too long, the bird grows tired of that nonsense. One of Mr. Popper's penguins quite literally snaps at Mr. Popper.

Dogs sniff stuff to obtain information, and a movie set has a lot of strange and interesting stuff for dogs to investigate: people they've never met before, costumes, props, the catering spread, and, of course cameras. Though shooting a scene for The Proposal with Oscar-winning movie star and America's sweetheart Sandra Bullock, a cute little fluffy dog was far more interested in getting an up-close deep whiff from the camera that was supposed to be filming it.

In the ridiculous classic Anchorman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) winds up a shell of a man in a "glass case of emotion" after he throws a burrito out of his car window and hits a biker (Jack Black), who responds by punting Ron's beloved dog, Baxter, off a bridge. In this outtake, it looks like the dog playing Baxter might sense that danger is on the way, because he instinctively runs away from Black.

The first part of Anchorman 2 shows Ron getting the old news team from Anchorman back together. He finds ace reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) working as a highly esteemed cat photographer. The scene includes some shots of adorable cats playing with yarn. The outtakes indicate some on-the-set tension—as in two of the tiny, furry stars get into an actual cat fight.

German Shepherds are one of the most fearsome breeds of dog, liable to maim, murder, and dismember if they're trained that way. Or, that passion can be re-directed into behaviors a bit more, well, affectionate. Seth Rogen shared the screen in The Interview with an extremely friendly German Shepherds. Unfortunately for Rogen, the parts with the dog required nudity...and the dog goes straight for his parts.

Top of the list of a dog's favorite things to do: lick a person's face. We probably tell ourselves it's because they like us, but they're probably just after any stray crumbs or salty face oils. It's unsanitary, it's gross, but dogs—and people who love dogs—just can't get enough of it. While filming The Hangover, Zach Galifianakis established a very special, lick-worthy bond with a dog named Tucker. Except that in this blooper, it doesn't seem like it's the dog who's the one doing the licking.

This historical TV series is full of serious, dramatic moments set on the battlefields of 18th-century Scotland. That means the show uses a lot of horses, who don't really know they're acting, and who aren't going to wait for the director to call "cut" before they attend to their personal business. Take for example, this horse, who spoils a solid take with its immediate need to voluminously defecate.

The thing with cats is that they love to bat their paw at any low- or loose-hanging object. Be it a string, a toy mouse on a stick, or something else that will sway with the push of a claw, they'll use it to happily entertain themselves indefinitely. In retrospect, it was probably a terrible idea for the makers of the Katherine Heigl romantic comedy The Ugly Truth to stage a scene that featured both male nudity...and a cat.

During a taping of an episode of his old NBC show in 2007, Conan O'Brien brought out a duck, even though he admittedly didn't have any idea what to actually do with the animal. The duck, ready to enjoy his big TV moment, took it from there. Almost immediately after it hit the stage, the duck pooped on the floor...and then nibbled at its own waste, much to the delight of O'Brien and the studio audience. The bit was so well-received that O'Brien brought the duck back on the show, christening the bird "Quackers, the s***-eating duck."

Disney's attempt to reboot The Lone Ranger was also an attempt to revive the old-school big-screen Western. As such, characters like the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) and Tonto (Johnny Depp) spend large portions of the movie on horseback. All that time together led to what looks like an on-set romance...or at least a crush. The beautiful white horse affectionately nuzzles Depp and lays its head on his shoulder. What an adorable couple!